Regional college baseball notebook: Four Stags earn MAAC honors

Updated 12:58 am, Wednesday, May 21, 2014

FAIRFIELD: Four Fairfield student-athletes earned All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) honors as the conference announced its postseason awards. It marked the first time that the Stags placed four players on the All-MAAC team in a single season. In addition to the All-MAAC accolades, 10 Stags were placed on the MAAC All-Academic team.

Catcher Ryan Plourde, pitcher EJ Ashworth (Orange) and designated hitter Jake Salpietro collected first-team accolades while pitcher Mike Wallace earned second-team honors. Plourde became the program's first three-time All-MAAC player. He has reached base in 29 consecutive games entering this weekend's MAAC Championship and has a team-best 16 multi-hit games this season. Plourde broke the Stags' career triples record earlier this year with his 11th triple and also places among the career leaders in hits (fourth with 217), walks (second with 118), games played and started (first with 199 and 193). He has a .335 batting average with nine doubles, three triples, two home runs and 29 RBIs this season.

Ashworth has won four of his last five starts and owns a 3-0 record in MAAC games with a 2.38 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 45 1/3 innings. For the season, the junior is sporting a 2.96 ERA and a 5-2 record. Salpietro has been one of the Stags' top hitters this season, batting .308 with 42 RBIs and 32 runs scored. Twenty-two of the sophomore's 56 hits went for extra bases. Wallace is 5-2 in MAAC games this year with a 2.26 ERA, striking out 35 batters and walking just eight in 51 2/3 innings.

Fairfield earned a berth into the 2014 MAAC Championships after going 30-22 overall and 15-8 in conference play this season. The third-seeded Stags will take on sixth-seeded Manhattan College on Wednesday at noon in Lakewood, N.J.

SACRED HEART: For the second time this season, sophomore Jayson Sullivan has been named Northeast Conference Player of the Week. The weekly award for Sullivan is Sacred Heart's ninth of the season.

In five games last week, the sophomore center fielder went 9-for-18 (.500) with 10 RBIs and four runs scored against in-state rivals Quinnipiac and Central Connecticut State. He leads the team with 35 RBIs and a .443 slugging percentage. He and the rest of the Pioneers will take on CCSU on Thursday afternoon in the first round of the NEC Tournament at 3:30 at Dodds Stadium in Norwich.